michaelbiland Reviews

Black Mirror: Fifteen Million Merits (2011) Season 1, Episode 2

One of the best TV series episodes I've ever seen

[9/10 · 21 September 2018]

This episode is very dark, and emotionally effective, but it's incredibly well done and engaging throughout.

The acting is good, the script is amazing, the effects are decent, and the whole thing comes together very well.

It's depressing, and affects you strongly, but it's still worth seeing.

Black Panther (2018)

Bland, Forgettable Slop.

[5/10 · 15 August 2018]

I was genuinely excited for this film when they announced Ryan Coogler, the director of Creed, (one of the best films I saw in 2016) was going to be in the director's chair.

But man, did Coogler misfire badly here. Badly filmed action, mostly under baked characters, rushed pacing, too many awkward moments, cringe humour, and some laughably bad CGI in the final battle.

The only good things were Michael.B Jordan's great acting and Ludwig Gorransson's great score.

Bland slop, don't believe the hype. I don't love the MCU, but they have put out stuff that's light years ahead of this.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Just Plain Terrible

[3/10 · 14 July 2018]

This film rightfully deserves it's rating of 3 - Garbage. Because that's all it is and ever will be.

In a nutshell, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a victim of many things: the 2007/2008 'Writer's Strike', that resulted in the film's incoherent plot. It's also a victim of Michael Bay's obnoxious humour, that is crammed into this movie, and a victim of Michael's signature plain cringey moments that permeate this film to the core.

It's also a victim of Michael Bay's terrible oversexualisation, that also permeates most of his films.

Those things drag this film down to the terrible state it's in. But there are some good things about this film. The Forest Battle is excellent and is the best action scene in all the Bayformers films, ironically. And the CGI is very good, just as good as Jablonsky's epic score for this film.

But these things don't save this steaming pile of garbage.

Don't see this film unless you want to appreciate good movies even more because of it.

The Transformers: The Movie (1986)

Great

[29 June 2018]

This film is overall an 8 - great.

The soundtrack is great, the voice acting is good, the plot is mostly engaging and the animation is very well done.

The only issues I can think of is that the action isn't very entertaining, but this couldn't be helped. It was the best they could do for the 80s. And there is one annoying character, but mercifully he's not in the film often.

Overall, this is a great flick worth a viewing because it's genuinely well done. For a first attempt at a full length Transformers film, it's not bad at all.

Narbacular Drop (2005 Video Game)

A Decent, But Flawed Soup of Potential

[11 July 2017]

Ahhh... The spiritual predecessor to Portal. Narbacular Drop was the student project that attracted the attention of Valve, who employed the developers to make a new game using portals, which ended up being... Portal. Even though this game is way too brown, and can get pretty buggy, the ambitious new concept of using portals to solve puzzles was a fresh strike of a glistening goldmine. And even in this small game, the solid portal physics and fun things you can do with portals was and still is evident. I think that all Portal fans should play this game, to see the humble roots of the massive franchise that Portal is today. I am still holding out and hoping for Valve to do a full-scale re-imagining of this game, because it would be very interesting to play and experience. This game is definitely not the best, not by a rough long shot, but it is a decent game, and I think that all Portal fans should play it.

7/10

The Boss Baby (2017)

A Masterpiece in every sense of the word

[10/10 · 20 April 2017]

The Boss Baby is a movie unlike anything the world has ever seen or ever will see. The story is about a baby who is supernaturally intelligent and teams up with his seven year old brother to stop the CEO of Puppy Co.

I'm going to say this right now and i'm sure everyone else is too if they have any brain cells whatsoever, this movie is a masterpiece, yes that's right a masterpiece in every sense of the word. I can see in the future everyone hailing this as a classic of the ages. The two extremely talented directors Hendel Butoy and Tom McGrath have exquisitely made a true and proper film of the ages.

A perfect score because it obviously deserves it in every single way, if there would be a movie i would marry it would be The Boss Baby. In fact a 10/10 seems a bit low....It really deserves much much more than just a perfect score it really deserves it's very own religion. If there was any religion I would follow it would be Thebossbabyism.

The Boss Baby is of course the very best movie of all time and NEEDS to the #1 movie on the IMDb Top 250 list, The Shawshank Redemption should be kicked off and be replaced with The Boss Baby where it truly belongs

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (2014 Video Game)

An Expensive Demo

[28 July 2016]

Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes is the prologue to Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain, the last Metal Gear game to be directed by Hideo Kojima, the founder of the franchise. Unfortunately, though, Ground Zeroes is an overpriced demo masquerading as a game worthy of it's 40$ price point. It's not. The main mission can be beaten in 6 minutes, or even quicker if tried hard enough. The side missions are laughable at best, providing no substance to the lore, only there to pad out the runtime, and rationalize paying money for this thing. Each platform version of Ground Zeroes provides a console exclusive mission. If you buy Ground Zeroes on the Xbox One, or Xbox 360, you will receive a mission where you play as cyborg ninja Raiden, as he kills Body Snatchers. If you buy Ground Zeroes on the PS3 or PS4, you'll receive the Deja Vu mission, where you play as PS1 era Solid Snake recreating events from MGS1. But even though the content of Ground Zeroes is laughable, the gameplay, graphics, and voice acting are excellent. The Fox Engine is really impressive, Snake controls really well, and everything runs at a buttery smooth 60FPS. Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain has the potential to be GOTY material, if it's more of what we're seeing in Ground Zeroes. Overall, Ground Zeroes is an overpriced demo, but with with great gameplay, graphics, and cutscenes. Don't buy this, wait for a price drop, or save your money for The Phantom Pain.